Is there a future for All-Pro Football?
by 
TheStreet.com takes a look at the sales performance thus far for All-Pro Football 2K8 and whether or not it has done well enough to warrant it becoming a bi-yearly franchise such as 2K Sports/Take Two had been hoping for.
Though Take-Two had hoped to turn All-Pro Football into a franchise that could take on the Madden juggernaut, so far, its efforts haven't paid off. The company, says Divnich, would be better off pulling the plug on its next football game.
You can find myself quoted within the article and can also read my take on the situation from a couple weeks ago here.
According to an analyst projection, the game may ship between 500,000 and 733,000 copies, which to me is a far overblown number. It appears on target for about 200-250,000 sales the way things are shaping up. As time goes by it looks like they'll be lowering the price, possibly very soon. So that is another thing that should be factored in when it comes to how profitable (or not) the game will end up being.
You can read the full article at thestreet.com by going here.
August 16, 2007 at 4:54 pm
In a sense, there is no future for AP in its current form.
August 16, 2007 at 5:03 pm
That should read ‘Essentially’, not ‘In a sense’. Not sure what I was thinking.
August 16, 2007 at 10:04 pm
this report sucks, but not surprising…
my only hope is the NFL sees what a great football engine 2k has & allows 2k to make a competing game…
not sure if they can next season. but if not, expect the same madden next year & the next & the next…
GO NINERS
August 17, 2007 at 8:13 am
w/o franchise mode… its not a good look… Online is the only fun part about it…
August 17, 2007 at 10:09 am
Considering that 2K’s game wasn’t able to compete with Madden when it had the license, it’s no surprise to see the sales of APF being what they are. That said, it would be tragic if the company pulled the plug, as it’s the best football game on the market.
I strongly suspect the future of the franchise depends on whether or not the NFL decides to open up exclusivity. APF was always designed with the idea of being a placeholder. If EA locks up the license again (and there’s no reason to think that they won’t), that will likely be that.
August 17, 2007 at 2:26 pm
I own APF, NCAA 08, and Madden 08, and I have to say that all are very fun games. However, the fact that APF football doesn’t have anything even close to the in depth management features that NCAA 08 and Madden 08 have is a major drawback.
As soon as NCAA came out, I was sucked into the campus legend mode and APF went on the shelf, never to have been played since. This is unfortunate because I really liked the running game in APF. It felt like the running backs had a little more momentum then they should have, but at least they had some.
August 17, 2007 at 11:50 pm
They barely Marketed the game. THey had hardly no offline. I dont know what they were really expecting. I enjoy the game. This is by far the best Sim football game ever put out IMO. If you dont market it, its not going to sell. especially a non NFL game.
August 18, 2007 at 7:17 pm
The 2K engine became terrible once the game switched from Dreamcast to PS2 and Xbox. This became evident with NFL 2K3, 2K4, and the supposed “Holy Grail of Football” NFL 2K5. Those games were riddled with crazy glitches and even worse A.I. The game doesn’t even put up the sales to compete with Madden. NFL 2K2 was Visual Concepts’s best effort NOT NFL 2K5 IMO. The only reason people hold NFL 2K5 in such high regard is because it was 20 bucks.
August 19, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Hardly. 2K5 was a tremendous game (although 2K4 was at least as good), and APF 2K8 is the best football simulation on the market. The DB AI has a few issues, but at the end of the day, it plays honestly- if a defender can see the ball, he breaks on it, and if he can’t, he doesn’t. It’s a stark contrast to Madden, where every defender peels off their man and attacks the ball as soon as it leaves the QBs hand, regardless of the defender’s orientation or assignment. The DB AI in Madden is an absolute train wreck, but because it’s challenging, it gets confused with being good. It’s not. I enjoy Madden, I’m playing the hell out of it at the moment…but it’s nowhere near the sim game that 2K8 is.
August 20, 2007 at 9:03 am
if it ends up being a madden monopoly on football titles, I will stop playing football videogames.
if hope 2k (and others) continue to make football games.
August 20, 2007 at 9:51 am
This article is nothing more than amateur internet guessing with crap piled on. The part where she speculates that T2 could be the target of a lawsuit because it has legends in it is comedy gold.